Ryuji slowly stood back up.
Very slowly.
For a few seconds, he remained motionless, his gaze empty, as if his own body still refused to accept that he was alive.
Every breath sent a burning pain through his chest. His arms felt heavy. His legs trembled so violently that he felt they could collapse at any moment. Blood ran down his face, sliding to his chin before dripping onto the blackened ruins of the battlefield.
Around him, chaos continued.
Explosions echoed in the distance.
Screams.
The crashing sound of stone.
The smell of blood and smoke mixed together in the air, which had become almost impossible to breathe.
And yet…
Despite the exhaustion.
Despite the pain.
Despite that strange burning sensation now devouring the inside of his body…
One thought remained perfectly clear in his mind.
The basilisk had to die.
Even if it meant fighting alongside Marcellus.
Even if that alliance made him sick to his stomach.
The monster that had slaughtered so many people could not be allowed to leave alive.
Ryuji slowly clenched his fists.
Reddish flames immediately appeared around his hands.
Then he dashed forward.
The cracked ground exploded beneath his feet.
In front of him, dozens of stone figures continued advancing like an army of the dead returned to life. Some were shattered, others half-melted, yet they still moved forward with grotesque, rigid movements.
The first statue raised a gigantic arm toward him.
Ryuji struck without slowing down.
His flaming fist instantly pulverized the creature's torso in an explosion of burning rock.
He immediately pivoted.
A second blow destroyed another statue's head.
Then a third.
A fourth.
Each impact unleashed a violent shockwave accompanied by draconic flames.
But there were always more.
Again.
Again.
As if the battlefield itself refused to stop.
"Tch…"
Ryuji gritted his teeth.
His body grew heavier with every passing second. His muscles already screamed in exhaustion, yet he forced himself to keep moving through the ruins.
Then suddenly—
An overwhelming pressure swept through the air.
Ryuji looked up just in time to see a massive black blade of energy split across the battlefield.
BOOOOM.
The attack wiped out dozens of statues in a single strike.
Some exploded instantly.
Others were launched into the air before crashing down in the distance with monstrous force.
Even Ryuji staggered from the shockwave.
Further away, Alpha slowly lowered his hand.
His black coat fluttered behind him under the violent winds caused by the explosion.
Even he now seemed slightly out of breath.
"Don't just stand there," he said coldly. "The real problem is ahead of you."
Ryuji finally turned his gaze toward the center of the battlefield.
And he saw it.
The basilisk.
Even wounded…
Even mutilated…
The creature still radiated an absolutely terrifying presence.
Its gigantic destroyed foreleg continued burning beneath the draconic flames Ryuji had left on it earlier.
Its eye, slashed open by Marcellus, leaked a blackish liquid resembling corrupted blood.
But despite all that…
The monster still seemed capable of crushing everyone here.
Every movement of its colossal body made the ground tremble.
Every roar felt as though it shook the air itself.
And farther away, standing before it…
Marcellus fought alone.
His golden sword carved luminous trails through the air as he dodged the basilisk's attacks with monstrous precision.
Even in this hell, his movements remained elegant.
Almost unreal.
The basilisk suddenly swung its gigantic tail to crush him.
Marcellus vanished.
Then instantly reappeared above the monster.
His hand slowly rested on the hilt of his sword.
Light immediately began flooding the surroundings.
"Pillar of Light."
The sky itself seemed to split apart.
Massive pillars of light violently descended from the clouds.
The first struck directly onto the basilisk's head.
BOOM.
The second obliterated part of its back.
BOOOOM.
The third exploded near its tail in a blinding detonation.
The monster's roar echoed throughout the entire battlefield.
Even the soldiers still fighting paused for a moment beneath the sheer violence of the attack.
And Ryuji immediately understood.
An opening.
His body moved before he could even think.
He ignited his fists even further.
Then charged.
Flames exploded behind him as he sprinted directly toward the basilisk.
The monster was still trying to rise despite the pillars of light, but Ryuji had already leapt onto its burned flank.
His hands touched the scales.
A horrifying pain instantly shot through his arms.
Even with his draconic flames, the creature's skin remained monstrously durable.
But this time…
Something had changed.
He could feel it.
The heat inside him was becoming more intense.
More savage.
As though another presence was now breathing deep within his soul.
Ryuji gritted his teeth and continued climbing along the basilisk's gigantic body.
His fist slowly rose.
Ready to strike.
But suddenly—
The basilisk unleashed a roar even more violent than all the previous ones.
With a brutal movement, the creature forced its body through the still-active pillars of light.
Then it lunged directly toward Ryuji.
Yes.
Lunged.
Despite its absurd size.
The air exploded beneath the monster's movement.
Ryuji's eyes widened slightly.
The basilisk's gigantic jaws opened before him.
Dozens of fangs appeared.
Huge.
Sharp.
Like a wall of death rushing straight toward him.
He was too close.
Far too close.
His exhausted body would never dodge in time.
Then—
A light suddenly tore through the battlefield.
"Light Slash."
Marcellus literally appeared in midair.
A massive wave of light split through space before crashing directly into the basilisk's jaw.
BOOOOM.
The monster was slightly thrown off course by the impact.
Only one second.
But one second was enough.
Ryuji forced his body to move and barely dodged the gigantic fangs that passed only centimeters away from him.
The pressure alone tore at his skin.
But immediately afterward, he lost his balance.
His body tilted into the void.
He was about to fall.
Then something suddenly wrapped around his waist.
A black chain.
"Wh—?!"
Before he could even understand what was happening, a brutal force violently launched him into the sky.
Ryuji looked up.
Aeryn.
Standing in the distance among the ruins, she kept her chains extended toward him despite her own injuries.
Their eyes met for a second.
Then she screamed with all her strength:
"FINISH IT!!"
Ryuji's body passed above the basilisk.
The monster was now directly beneath him.
Its enormous back completely exposed.
And suddenly…
Time itself seemed to slow down.
The sounds of the battlefield gradually disappeared.
Ryuji remembered their first encounter.
That feeling of absolute helplessness.
That fear.
That humiliating moment when his own hands had nearly been destroyed simply from touching the monster's scales.
He had been weak.
Ridiculously weak.
But now…
It was different.
Completely different.
His fists burned hotter.
Then his arms.
Then his entire body.
The draconic flames exploded around him with terrifying intensity.
The air itself seemed to burn.
Even the soldiers farther away stopped fighting when they felt the monstrous heat.
"That heat…!"
"He's literally burning…!"
Even Ryuji himself didn't fully understand what was happening to him.
The words naturally appeared in his mind.
Like a forgotten memory.
As though that power had once belonged to someone else.
As though a foreign memory was slowly merging with his own.
The flames became gigantic.
A compact mass of fire completely enveloped his body.
Then—
Ryuji fell.
Like a true meteor crossing the sky.
"Dragon Meteor."
The next instant…
The sky itself seemed to explode.